As Mac Maharaj took the stand on Wednesday morning to face his 13th hour of cross examination, he faced more questions about a report that had been "reconstructed" by former African National Congress intelligence operative Mo Shaik.

He is being questioned before the Hefer Commission by Marumo Moerane, appearing for national prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Shaik had reworked a decade-old spy report on Ngcuka within months of his brother, Schabir Shaik, being investigated by the Scorpions.

Maharaj told the commission that it was this report, which concluded "in all probability" that Ngcuka was an informer and which was originally compiled by Shaik's ANC intelligence unit in 1989, that he had discussed with President Thabo Mbeki when Maharaj went to see him on August 23.

The report was reconstructed by Mo Shaik when Schabir and the Nkobi group of companies were investigated for corruption relating to the multibillion rand arms deal.

It is not known what kind of conclusion the meeting between Maharaj and the president reached, but less than three weeks later, parts of the report - given to former Sunday Times reporter Ranjeni Munusamy - was published in City Press and soon afterwards Mbeki appointed the commission.

Maharaj, who was also snagged by the arms deal investigation, said he had decided to "go public" about Ngcuka when he discovered that the person leaking information to the media about himself had been, in his view, Ngcuka himself.

Moerane told the commission he had been instructed that Maharaj had not shown Mbeki any proof. But he said he was not going to argue with Maharaj about this, because the "report had a flawed conclusion" based on incorrect information.

During his cross-examination, which is bound to continue for the rest of Wednesday, Moerane said Maharaj had decided to make the spy claims public, because Ngcuka had refused to help him out of an embarrassing situation.

This related to public claims, flowing from the arms deal probe, that Maharaj had received money from Schabir Shaik.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis, Jeremy Gordin and the Cape Argus.